Week in review

Quote of the week

“There are no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” – Ludwig von Mises

“You may not have heard of the American Community Survey, but you will. The national census, which historically is taken every ten years, has expanded to quench the federal bureaucracy’s ever-growing thirst to govern every aspect of American life. The new survey, unlike the traditional census, is taken each and every year at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. And it’s not brief. It contains 24 pages of intrusive questions concerning matters that simply are none of the government’s business, including your job, your income, your physical and emotional heath, your family status, your dwelling, and your intimate personal habits.” more…

“In the end, this is what it always comes down to for the state: the preservation of its own power. Everything it does, it does to secure its power and to forestall the diminution of its power. I submit to you that everything else you hear, in the end, is a cover for that fundamental motive.

“And yet, this power requires the cooperation of public culture. The rationales for power must convince the citizens. This is why the state must be alert to the status of public opinion. This is also why the state must always encourage fear among the population about what life would be like in the absence of the state.

…

“The Left warns us that if we don’t have leviathan, our front yards will be flooded from rising oceans, big business moguls will rob us blind, the poor will starve, the masses will be ignorant, and everything we buy will blow up and kill us. The Right warns that in the absence of leviathan, society will collapse in cesspools of immorality lorded over by swarthy terrorists preaching a heretical religion.

“The goal of both the Left and Right is that we make our political choices based on these fears. It doesn’t matter so much which package of fear you choose; what matters is that you support a state that purports to keep your nightmare from becoming a reality.” more…

“If history has taught us anything, it is to beware of ‘cooperative partnerships’ between the federal government and states. They invariably result in an expansion of federal authority and reach at the expense of the states and a diminution of individual rights and freedoms in the name of the general welfare and national security. So-called ‘cooperative federalism’ is a snare and a delusion.” more…

Politics and such

Keith Olberman on the SCOTUS decision regarding corporate “rights”. There’s a kernel of truth here, and in retrospect I’m not exactly sure how to feel about this whole thing. (video 11:00)

“Fear the Boom and Bust” a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem (music video 7:32). Here’s the main site with lyrics, the story behind the video, and the video too of course.

Can you help Adam Kokesh with some money so that he can get his supporters to a Republican county convention in New Mexico? Or perhaps you live in northern New Mexico and can be a delegate to one of these conventions yourself?

On the other hand here’s a transcript of said speech if you’d like to try playing the game anyway. And of course variousbits of commentary. And a fact check on parts of the speech as well.

Ben Bernanke is reappointed The Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System by a 70-30 vote in the Senate. Meanwhile some possibility of criminality on Bernanke’s part in the AIG bailout is surfacing.

Congress has just voted for creating a $50 million park in the Virgin Islands.

I went to the Willow Run Tea Party Caucus last night, which explains the lateness of the newsletter…

Anyway, the meeting was interesting. Met a few new people, which is always nice. Steven Mobley, who is running for District 62 Representative (Battle Creek Area) talked with us a bit.

One thing occurred to me on the way home though. The whole limited government thing has previously failed because the people who espoused limited government were mostly concerned with eliminating programs that didn’t work. That is, if there was a program in their own backyard or one that they depended upon, well then, it was okay. They were more insistent upon eliminating the other things. The result of this, which is due to the spirit of compromise that must exist in politics, is that nothing ever gets cut, and in fact that almost everything grows.

To truly embrace limited government philosophy we must be willing to mercilessly cut out the programs that work along with the ones that don’t. To cut out our pet neighborhood program as we demand that other communities cut theirs. To lead by example.

Otherwise being for “limited government” just means being for “big government that works”. And of course “works” is in the eye of the beholder, and we are right back where we started. So, to spare the program in your own neighborhood and expect the community down the street to eliminate theirs is the height of hypocrisy, and will never stop government growth.

Apple’s new iTablet will rapidly gain some steam after this initial over-hype time during it’s launch. The A4 chip and Mac’s potential to fix defections will definitly to make the product a success in the time ahead.